The future of the restaurant industry was scattered across the NRA Show floor last week, with even more tech companies putting their products on display. Swipe, scan or tap, there was no shortage of gadgets that offered to leverage the latest technologies, from blockchain to artificial intelligence, to improve restaurant processes.

NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, May 30, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, nonprofit Women Who Tech , one of the largest organizations that funds and showcases women-led ventures, announced the winner of the 2019 Women Startup Challenge hosted at Google.

Food and service have always been the stars of any restaurant, but it's what happens behind the scenes that helps keep operations humming and in the black. Technology that drives many of those efficiencies and capabilities is taking on an even bigger role, which is something exhibits at the National Restaurant Association Show make clear.

A new product that scans users' hands to search for indicators of foodborne illnesses has been launched by New York-based company PathSpot Tech. The PathSpot Hand Scanner, which was featured at the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago last week, scans employees' hands after they have been washed and dried, and can detect contamination behind foodborne illness including Salmonella, E.coli, Norovirus, Listeria, and Hepatitis A.

The National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show is excited to announce the 14 Startup Alley exhibitors that will be in attendance at the 2019 Show, to be held May 18-21 in Chicago at McCormick Place. These ground-breaking companies will display their high-tech ideas for enhancing restaurant operations and increasing revenue, in addition to giving buyers a sneak peek at the future of foodservice.

Nancy Kruse: The only time we crossed paths in Chicago, Bret, was on the 9 a.m. shuttle to McCormick Place on Saturday morning. It was the lull before the annual NRA Show storm, both of us bright eyed, bushy tailed and running through our respective must-see lists.

SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) - A food safety startup is ramping up pilot testing of a hand scanner to detect pathogens, and a Bay Area restaurant chain gave KPIX 5 a first look. PathSpot, based in New York, has installed its first device on the west coast at the Pizza My Heart location on Camden Avenue in San Jose's Cambrian Park neighborhood.

The 100th National Restaurant Association Restaurant, Hotel-Motel Show® was held at Chicago's McCormick Place from May 18-21. For the fifth year-in-a-row, the Show had record exhibit space sales at 723,069 square feet and welcomed 42,557 restaurant operators, retail foodservice professionals, equipment dealers, food distributors, and many others - 3% more than 2018.

A global leader in materials science, printing technologies, RFID solutions and manufacturing, Avery Dennison is taking a bold step into the future of food that will allow restaurants, grocery and convenience stores to address current needs and meet future challenges with holistic, scalable solutions for a connected supply chain.

Two engineers have created a device called PathSpot that uses spectroscopy - that is to say, light - to help determine whether or not there's bacteria on hands. They were inspired to follow this path by the E. coli outbreak at Chipotle from a few years ago.

smithsonian.com Today, the epitome of foodborne illness prevention technology in commercial kitchens is a sign in the restroom that says "employees must wash their hands before returning to work." To Christine Schindler and Dutch Waanders, that didn't seem like the optimal solution.

A New York City startup is trying to put an end to food-borne illness with a simple two-second test. PathSpot is a system that protects food service companies and their customers by scanning employees' hands to see if they have any harmful contamination that could make someone sick, in less than two seconds, says Christine Schindler, the CEO and co-founder of PathSpot.

In every (decent) restaurant bathroom, there is a big bold sign that reminds employees to WASH THEIR HANDS. Exactly how well they wash those hands is a bit less definitive. And poorly washed hands touching your food after a trip to the bathroom, well, I'm getting nauseated just writing this.